


The night is long, so hold me tight

by WahlBuilder



Category: Gaunt's Ghosts - Dan Abnett, Warhammer 40k (Novels) - Various Authors
Genre: Comfort, First Kiss, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-19
Updated: 2016-04-19
Packaged: 2018-06-03 06:58:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6601267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WahlBuilder/pseuds/WahlBuilder
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Gereon mission is endless, and Rawne thinks they will never get out. But Gaunt is here, and maybe they have a chance.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The night is long, so hold me tight

Rawne likes nights.

Although here, on Gereon, darkness never truly comes, the skies are rusty, the clouds reflect sick orange lights of factories back down on rotting earth.

With night comes the cold. The planet is running hot and cold and hot again, feverish. Sick. They are all sick.

They will never get out of here.

‘We  _ will _ get out of here.’

Rawne startles as Gaunt closes the door, and wraps the ragged blanket tighter around his shoulders. The old shack is falling apart, but at least no wind comes through the holes carrying the stench of decay. Winds on Gereon are slow, shambling low to the ground, barely moving thick air.

Gaunt goes to the hearth and blows on the dying embers. They glower and put out tongues of flames at him.

Rawne watches Gaunt’s back as Gaunt opens cans with meat and puts them near the fire. Even by the sight of his back Rawne can tell that Gaunt is tired. It doesn’t show in his gestures, not yet, but he just knows. And he is dimly aware that Gaunt’s hair has grown out significantly, though Rawne struggles to remember that under the dirt it’s supposed to be blond.

They quickly found out that out of their small group Rawne is better when working with Gaunt.

He has found out that he can’t raise his hand on Gaunt. Oh, they do have fights, they do punch each other, they do spill each other’s blood and growl at each other. But he can’t really  _ hurt  _ Gaunt.

Or kill him.

Even at his lowest, at his most dangerous, when even his shadow is his enemy, Gaunt is someone he trusts utterly.

Gaunt holds him through it, hurts him if it comes to it. Gaunt commands, and he obeys and closes his eyes and listens to Gaunt’s voice.

Gaunt saves him.

Fething bastard.

And the bastard keeps promising that they’ll get out of here. That  _ he _ will get them out of here.

But Rawne thinks it’s just a load of gak. They are most likely to go mad before they even die. The rot is inside, it is dripping from their fingers, it’s sloshing in their heads.

It clenches Rawne’s heart and he can’t breathe and has to wait for Gaunt to come and save him. Only Gaunt can save him. But they are not getting out of here. Maybe Gaunt hasn’t abandoned them, maybe Gaunt hasn’t abandoned Elim Rawne, but the rest of the universe  _ has _ abandoned Elim Rawne.

Because Elim Rawne doesn’t deserve to be saved. He just can’t convince Gaunt of it. Gaunt is a fething stubborn bastard, after all.

Gereon is growing through them. They all are going to become a part of it. They are already rotting.

Rawne puts his legs down on the floor and gets up from the broken cot. The blanket trails after him like a cloak but then leaves him alone, cowardly thing. His legs are stiff and in heat. He is sick.

He has nothing.

Gaunt manages to half-turn to him, and Rawne catches the flame dancing in Gaunt’s eyes before he kisses the fething bastard. And because they are clearly mad Gaunt wraps his arms around him and makes him sit with him on the floor.

Rawne’s hands move on their own and slide under Gaunt’s shirt, dirty and hard from caked mud, but there, underneath, he is warm and alive. And he doesn’t smell of sweet, heady rot, he just stinks of sweat and dirt and weariness and not having enough sleep, and Rawne moves just so, closer, and rests his head on Gaunt’s shoulder.

And Gaunt’s hands are holding him, saving him.

‘I will take you out of here,’ Gaunt repeats, quietly, right into his ear as if it could convince him. But apparently, Gaunt has so much power over him, has rooted inside him so deeply that even Gereon’s stench can’t get Gaunt out of Rawne.

And so Rawne snorts and smiles into Gaunt’s neck and says, ‘I believe you, Bram.’

**Author's Note:**

> Crossposted from my [tumblr](http://kaimalak.tumblr.com/post/143074041975/the-night-is-long-so-hold-me-tight).


End file.
